Patrick Goodenough

Patrick covered government and politics in South Africa and the Middle East before joining CNSNews.com in 1999. Since then he has launched foreign bureaus for CNSNews.com in Jerusalem, London and the Pacific Rim. From October 2006 to July 2007, Patrick served as Managing Editor at the organization's world headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Now back in the Pacific Rim, as International Editor he reports on politics, international relations, security, terrorism, ethics and religion, and oversees reporting by CNSNews.com's roster of international stringers.

My Articles

Voters in Florida passed a ballot initiative Tuesday legalizing the use of medical marijuana by people with specified debilitating diseases and conditions – one of a nine statewide initiatives across the nation this year to decriminalize or legalize marijuana.

In a move that some warn could set a dangerous precedent for the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, a group of countries will try to use a vote in New York Tuesday to reverse an earlier decision, which they were unable to defeat at the Geneva-based HRC.

As hundreds of international observers from dozens of countries fan across the nation ahead of Tuesday’s election, their behavior is governed by their own organizations’ codes of conduct, which call for “strict impartiality.” That message did not appear to have reached everyone, however.

More U.S. deaths linked to the anti-ISIS military operation: The three U.S. special forces soldiers killed in Jordan on Friday were deployed as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the mission aimed at destroying the jihadist group, according to the U.S. Army.

The American people have been given no good explanation for the “perplexing discrepancy” between the tiny proportion of Christians among Syrian refugees resettled in the U.S. and the considerably larger proportion of Christians in the Syrian population, a federal appellate court judge has written.

A day after Donald Trump pledged to “cancel billions in global warming payments to the United Nations,” top administration climate officials said Thursday that the outcome of next week’s election would not likely have a major impact on the international momentum driving the Paris climate accord, despite the fact that “the candidates have very different views on climate.”

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday the administration does not regard the slogan “Death to America” as official Iranian policy, asserting that, “like any country, there’s heated political rhetoric that comes out.”

No military or government on earth takes its responsibilities in conducting war more seriously than the United States does, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday when asked about a report indicating that the International Criminal Court may soon upgrade a preliminary probe of allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan to a full-fledged investigation.

Speaking after receiving an award for the Iran nuclear deal, Kerry said it was his view that the Arab world was more ready now than “at any time previously” to be part of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Secretary of State John Kerry this week, for the second time in several days, fretted about the way the Syria chemical weapons “red line” episode is remembered, pushing back on the notion that President Obama’s decision not to bomb Assad regime targets after saying he would do so amounted to a backing down.

Secretary of State John Kerry called Lebanon’s new Hezbollah-aligned president on Tuesday, congratulating a politician whose election has been hailed by Hezbollah’s patron, Iran, as a boost for the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization and for the Assad regime.

The U.S. election campaign “has been difficult for our country’s perception abroad,” Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience in London on Monday. “There are moments when it is downright embarrassing.”

Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday praised his Iranian counterpart as a tough negotiator and “a patriot …who fought hard for his nation’s interests” during the marathon talks that produced the nuclear agreement.

Sunday’s letter from Reid – two months away from retirement – questioned Comey’s principles, accused him of practicing double standards, and charged that he may have broken a 77-year-old law prohibiting federal employees from using their positions in a bid to influence an election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin charged Thursday that the “elite” in the U.S. were trying to divert voters’ attention away from acute problems like the national debt, gun violence and police shootings by accusing Russia of trying to influence the election.

Secretary of State John Kerry will be traveling to London this weekend to accept an international relations award from one of the world’s leading think tanks, but his Iranian counterpart, jointly named to receive the award for their diplomacy on the Iran nuclear deal, is not planning to go due to a “tight schedule.”

As it prepares to observe the November 8 elections, an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission already in the U.S. drew attention on Wednesday to the fact that 13 states explicitly forbid international election observation.

The Obama administration’s decision for the first time not to vote against an annual U.N. resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba brought applause from the world body’s representatives Wednesday, but angered congressional critics of the Castro regime.